President's visit brings town to a halt

President Bush's visit to Mainz prompted one of the biggest security operations in Germany's history yesterday - with shops, schools and even the country's legendary autobahns all closed. Even the struggling General Motors-owned car factory in nearby Rüsselheim shut down production.

A force of 10,000 police sealed off the town, best known for its Romanesque cathedral, with bus services halted and cars banned. Frogmen searched for explosives along the Rhine where President Bush's father took a cruise in 1989 with the German chancellor Helmut Kohl. All barges on the river were halted. Even flowerpots and rubbish bins were removed.

President Bush's arrival at Frankfurt airport also caused chaos. The airport, one of Europe's busiest, was shut for 20 minutes. Lufthansa, Germany's national airline, cancelled 34 flights, inconveniencing 2,300 passengers.

Yesterday few residents in Mainz, in the picturesque wine-growing region of the Rhineland, thought the disruption was worth it. "This place has been a ghost town all day. It looks like it does at 7am on Sunday morning," said one resident Kai Minck. "People are fed up," added Marcelo Crescenti.

In contrast to Mr Bush senior's visit, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, there were no welcoming crowds to greet the president. In fact, Mr Bush met no ordinary Germans at all during his eight-hour trip. A question and answer session with young people was cancelled by the White House last week after Germany's ambassador to the US said that it would not be possible to guarantee that no hostile questions would be asked about Iraq.